Rugby 7s should make for a wide open Olympic field

After a hiatus that lasted nearly a century, rugby is back in the Olympics -- and America actually does have a shot at medaling in both the men’s and women’s competitions.

Technically, because of the Olympic banishment, Team USA has had a 90-year stranglehold on the Olympic rugby podium. America won Olympic gold in rugby in Antwerp in 1920 and in Paris in 1924, proving that at the time, it was just about the best the world had to offer in the sport. But then the Olympics dropped the sport, and so did America, as rugby was quickly and violently surpassed in popularity stateside by American football.

The 2016 Olympics welcome rugby sevens, a variant that, as you can tell from the name, uses just seven players per side. Full-scale rugby union features 15 players per side.

The main reason for this is logistics. A regular rugby match consists of two 40-minute periods, and it would take too long for players to recover from the exhaustion and brutality of a full rugby match for a tournament to be completed within the Olympics’ two-week time span. So the Olympics turned to sevens, where halves are just seven minutes long. The Olympic rugby tournaments will take three days from start to finish.

Each 12-team field is divided into three groups of four. The best two in each group (as well as two third-place teams) will advance to the knockout stages. The women’s semis and finals will be held Aug. 8, and the men’s will be Aug. 11.

But the ability to play a bunch of games quickly isn’t the only reason sevens was ideal for the Olympics. The wide-open nature of the sport leads to more parity, which means the medalists won’t be limited to traditional rugby powers. It’s simply easier to be competitive when you only need seven world-class players instead of 15. And since the field is the same size as a pitch meant for 15 players, it’s easier to break loose. A single speedster can score on their own, and one defensive mistake can lead to a score. And games are just 14 minutes long, so one score goes a long way.

This means smaller nations can succeed. Fiji is one of the top 10 men’s teams in the world in the conventional 15-a-side game, but it’s hard for the South Pacific archipelago to conceivably win a major tournament. Their team has never made it past the quarterfinals of the Rugby World Cup.

But at sevens, Fiji is able to dominate. They’re ranked No. 1 in the world, and won three of the 10 events of last year’s World Rugby Sevens Series. No Fijian athlete or team has ever won a medal in any Olympic event, but the men’s sevens squad should certainly reach the podium, if not win Fiji’s first-ever Olympic gold.

The same goes for Team USA. So many athletes who could represent America internationally play football instead, so the American rugby team is quite weak. They lost all four games at the Rugby World Cup, including a 64-0 defeat at the hands of South Africa.

But the team can throw together enough players to succeed in the speed-based world of sevens. Team USA won an event of the World Rugby Sevens Series in London of last year, and twice finished in third place at events this year. That means it’s certainly possible for the Eagles to reach the podium in London. Notable players include Nate Ebner, who actually started his career playing rugby but has won the Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, and Carlin Isles, often described as the fastest rugby player in the world.

The American women’s squad has a chance at success as well. While they’ve never won an event of a sport dominated by New Zealand and Australia, they’re ranked sixth in the world and can certainly make a run at a bronze medal.